Paul Gauguin

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

I shut my eyes in order to see.

Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.

It is the eye of ignorance that destroys the poetry of life.

Civilization is what we call it, but it is a disease.

The mere fact that I exist means that I realize I am in this world to create.

I am not a great painter; I am a primitive painter.

Nature is a dictionary of symbols.

The uglier a face, the handsomer it becomes.

I have tried to place before my eyes the spectacle of life in its entirety.

Europe is dying; the future lies in the primitive.

Painting is the most beautiful of arts.

I am a savage in the sense that I am outside the whole European civilization.

The artist must forget the world around him.

Life is a dream in colors.

I paint to forget the ugliness of the world.

The soul of the savage is closer to nature.

Modern art is a sickness.

I seek the essential truth in painting.

Tahiti is a dream, a paradise lost.